Friday the 13th Part III (2007)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I have slightly mixed feelings on this third movie because in comparison to the previous two, the tone is decidedly lighter and watered-down somewhere and it doesn't feel as dark or grim. For every suspenseful moment there's something frivolous and goofy waiting just around the corner, for one thing that kooky intro music is horribly cheesy and so not Friday the 13th, there's no spookiness to it. It's a real earworm too, it makes me want to do the funky shoulder Thriller-type dance move every time I hear it! How serious can you possibly take a horror movie though when it's crawling with off-putting and unappealing characters like from the get go the world's most unhappy couple at the beginning, the middle-aged stoners(wrong movie!), the confused biker gang, the retard who's only character trait was that he occasionally liked to walk on his hands, and of course poor doomed chubby misunderstood prankster Shelly with his ridiculous hair whiny voice and stupid rubbery sad clown face. The one good thing about Shelly is that he introduces the iconic mask to the franchise. It's so amazing how much of a genuine little pop culture horror phenomenon was made in that humble mask. By and large those kinds of white hockey masks are now associated with horror/Jason, and that's all because of this movie! When Jason puts it on it's like his image and persona are complete, it's like his symbol, a skull of death, and is the only face he really needs... That said though, there are other incarnations of Jason I like better than this one, he's a bit too lanky and apelike, I don't like his hump. And some of his body language is a bit too casual, the guy almost looks bored at points! The big creepy barn of certain doom that Jason hangs out in for most of the movie is the first thing that always pops into my mind about it.. I really hate the 3D, it's so obnoxious the way it's shoved right in your face every two minutes and for me it only hinders the enjoyment of the movie rather than doing it any favours. It might not have been so annoying if they'd only used it during the death scenes, but what they did mostly opt to use it for was just stupid. It's so obvious that the main effort of this flick was put into all that s**t rather than attempts at developing the story or characters a bit more. They should have tried harder to make the movie more interesting instead of mainly relying on such a pointless throwaway gimmick.. It still made it's money though! Dana Kimmell as Chris the survivor girl is okay, she's perfectly nice and pretty but she doesn't have the character of the two heroines that preceded her, and for the most part she's pretty indistinguishable from the rest of her friends. She is very good at the end though when she's facing Jason, she was effective at getting all worked up and appearing like she was starting to lose it. I find the whole closing sequence where she's been driven to madness by the fear and screams and giggles to herself as she's ushered into the police car after imagining Jason leering out at her from the window with his hideous face and then coming out to get her, genuinely chilling. The movie does end on a good strong note. Friday the 13th Part III is a fairly unremarkable movie and slasher overall, I don't think I'd give it the time of day if it didn't happen to be a Jason movie. It's funny how after a time a horror movie villain's appeal can become so strong that it can overshadow the very movies that made him in he first place, exact same thing with Freddy! For me it's not one of the best offerings in the series but like most of them it is awesome and ridiculous in equal measure and is just a fun bloody ride that makes for some classic rainy night slasher viewing. A solid seven joints pointed square at the camera out of ten! "Whoo! This feels goood!" X

This films starts off with the climax of the second film, where Jason Voorhees apparently didn't die, but lives again to kill more campers at Camp Crystal Lake. This entry seems to be more competently made than prior entries, but overall the film is still pretty uninteresting and nothing but an excuse for Jason to kill a bunch of co-eds, this time in 3-D, so there are lots of straight-at-the-camera stabbings, impaling, popcorn popping, and balls being juggled that all looks pretty stupid when you watch it in 2-D. There are some attempts at suspense and scares that work better than the prior two films, but that's a pretty low bar. However, I did enjoy the fair amount of 80s nostalgia in the film, from vans with luxurious interior carpets, to Velcro wallets, to the fashions and hairdos. This film also seemed to be when the series started proper, with this film being the first one where Jason wears the hockey mask (Jason wasn't the killer of the first film and he wore a gunny sack in the second film). Still, if you want 80s slasher films, even though this series solidified the formula, there were quite a few knockoffs that did it much better, like "Halloween," "Torso," or even something like "Sleepaway Camp."

I had decided recently to re-watch all of the Friday the 13th films again because there is a new one coming out this year. Last night I watched number 3 again and I have to say it is just as good as I remember.There is a certain quality in the first few films that slowly dissolved in the later sequels. Jason is back after the events of number 2 and returning to Camp Crystal lake after being away for a little while. The opening scene shows Jason killing 2 shop owners, these are quite nasty killings and it made me jump even though you know whats coming these deaths are still shocking. Fast forwards a few hours and we see a van arriving at Camp Crystal lake. Jason has not come home yet, but you can bet when he does he is not going to like these new visitors. Strange things start to occur and the heroine played by Dana Kimmell knows that something is amiss. As the time goes on, Jason picks off the new counselors one by one and in this Friday the 13th Jason moves around very menacingly, the actor Richard Brooker definitely knew how to use the space around him to the fullest advantage. The rest of the actors were average or below average. I remember a girl in a blue top running up and down stairs very unconvincingly trying to act but it just wasn't coming across well. Overlooking these slight annoyances there is actually a very good slasher film here. The last 20 minutes or so sees Jason and Chris in an exhilarating chase and the ending works really well. I was not expecting his mother to come out of the water! That is something that still made me jump even now and even though I have seen this film years ago that still was a big wow moment. This is definitely not a movie for everyone, but if you do not like this kind of movie then you probably haven't seen the first 2 and you probably wouldn't be reading this review. Make some popcorn, turn out the lights and enjoy! They certainly do not make films like this anymore.

Continued Crystal Lake bloodletting, now with 100% more hockey mask. Characterization has improved from the pitiful showing in Part 2, but that's close to the textbook definition of a backhanded compliment. We still endure some painfully awkward social interactions and idiotic decisions from the cast, and linger too long in their dry, boring daylight scenes. The series has moved past the camp counselor-as-victim model, though it doesn't seem to make much of a difference: these generic teenagers don't behave much differently. Jason continues to be omnipresent, basically signifying a transition point between every scene. Time to move our perspective into the bedroom? Well, let's just cram a shadowy figure or heavy work boot into the end of the preceding shot. Don't forget the trademarked stalking/heavy breathing melody. His problems with closing the deal also persist: the guy is downright psychic for the first dozen kills, but when the number of survivors drops to one or two, all of a sudden he can't get out of his own way. Sloppy and poorly made, like many of the era's horror movies, but also oddly charming for many of the same reasons.